Great Valley third in 4x800

Distance events are difficult enough on the body and mind, but what happens when simply taking a breath becomes a problem?

Great Valley senior Elise Claffey, who developed breathing difficulties earlier this month, has the answer.

Friday at the Penn Relays, Claffey helped Great Valley finish fourth in the 4x800 Championship of America.

"I was kind of nervous because I didn't want to go out there and not be able to breathe," she said. "It's not a good feeling, but toward the middle of the race when I started feeling it, I just thought to myself, 'You're OK. You're going to finish it.' "

"It's definitely when I start freaking out that it gets worse, so I have to remind myself, 'You're OK. Relax.' "

The Brown-bound Claffey first suffered severe tightening in her chest a few weeks ago, and that made running more than 400 meters difficult. After several doctor's appointments, Claffey was given an inhaler. Although she never previously suffered any symptoms, doctors suspect asthma or allergies.

"Today, it felt a little better than yesterday," she said, "but I felt a little bit nervous because when I warmed up, it was really bad because it still hurt from yesterday."

Holmwood Tech (Christiana, Jamaica) took the top spot (9:01.31).

Claffey (2:19.23) started the race and was followed by Anna Willig (2:17.57), Tabitha Wismer (2:22.99) and Crosby Spiess (2:15.04) for Great Valley (9:14.81). Wismer will run at Bucknell next season.

"It was definitely exciting," said Claffey, who expects to visit a specialist for her recent breathing troubles. "It means a lot being here with these girls for the last time. And we've been through so much together the past few years, so to finish up here at the Penn Relays is something special."

Pennsbury (7:54.98), Central Bucks East (7:56.52) and Central Bucks West (7:59.31) each qualified for the Championship of America race Saturday in the boys' 4x800.

Eric Kersten (2:00.44), Alek Sauer (1:54.17), Matt Mulvaney (2:03.47) and Sam Webb (1:56.93) led Pennsbury.

Ata Shahideh (1:58.68), Jake Brophy (1:57.38), Louis Kettelberger (2:02.63), Oliver Boucher (1:57.84) paced Central Bucks East.

Andrew Baker (2:00.81), Jake Claricurzio (2:01.14), Carter Zerweck (2:00.50) and Rock Fortna (1:56.87) pushed Central Bucks West.

Germantown Academy's Sam Ritz (4:09.94) finished fourth in the boys' Mile Run Championship.

Ciara Leonard, Janiel Slowly, Alexis Crosby and Chanel Brissett led Cheltenham (47.21 seconds) to a second-place finish in the Large School 4x100. Jamaica's St. Catherine (46.89) topped the charts.

La Salle's Grant Jones finished seventh in the javelin championship (186-10). Brandon Leacraft of Spring-Ford finished 10th (176-2).

North Penn finished seventh in 3:52.06 in the 4x400 Championship of America. The runners were: Uche Nwogwugwu (56.7), Leiana Dean (57.9), Mikaela Vlasic (59.77), and Allison King (57.66).

Father Judge (43.94) finished second in its heat and 35th out of 247 in the 4x100 Large School relay. The team consisted of Jamal Cooley and football speedsters Raheem "Speedy" Blackshear, Yeedee Thaenrat and Prince Smith.